We are only a couple of weeks away from the big show, A Christmas Carol. We have more work to do but our ensemble is up to the task. Everyone arrived quickly even after the first snow of the season happened this weekend. It was great to see everybody after our week off for Thanksgiving. Once we were all gathered Kaylie led us in a dance party, One Direction was a big request. Next we made our circle and Kaylee led us in a warm up and we decided to check in. The check in question was, “What did you do for Thanksgiving?” Sounds like everybody had a great time visiting with family and eating lots of food. Before moving on to finishing up the blocking of the play we played a warm-up game. One of our favorites Whoosh-whoa, of course everybody wants to do the whao so it took us a while to get around the circle the first time but once we did we quickly moved onto speedier runs.

A few rounds of Whoosh-whoa later it was time to finish the blocking for our show and we were already very close to the end. We started off with the end of scene four. The first actor onto the stage was Andrew playing the The Third Spirit and our Scrooge was played by Colleen. The moment begins with Scrooge waking in the dark, Andrew as the Third Spirit comes floating in from upstage terrified Scrooge who asks him what he has planned. The Third Spirit of course says nothing and points into the darkness. Lights up on two men talking about a recently deceased colleague, they have no sympathy for him and no sadness at his death, only mocks and jeers. Scrooge can't believe that somebody was so easily forgotten and asked the spirit who this person was, the Spirit says nothing. Next Andrew took Colleen upstage to Scrooge’s bedroom. Scrooge realized that it is much like his own bedroom, but thinks that it belongs to someone else as it is so different. The spirit points out a trio going through the dead man's belongings. Sam R. Anna and Lucy sort through Scrooge's things. Scrooge does not yet know who the dead man is. Finally the third spirit takes Scrooge to a graveyard. The horrified Scrooge looks upon the gravestone and finds his own name. Colleen is already giving great power to this moment of sheer terror as Scrooge understands exactly where is life's path is leading him. As the lights go down Scrooge then wakes in his own room and realizes that there is still time. Colleen, made us all laugh as she danced around with glee. Next up with scene five Emily took over the role of Scrooge and so we moved to just outside Scrooge’s house. Ben playing an Errand Boy runs into Scrooge who hires him to buy the largest turkey in the shop for the Cratchits. Emily is then met by Andrew and promises him a large donation. The next scene is it Fred's front door. Fred is played by Sam R. Fred is very confused why his uncle is there and learns that Scrooge has changed and wants to spend Christmas with them. The last scene of the play is at the Cratchit household, Emily did a superb job playing the false anger of Scrooge as she yelled at Cratchit to get back to work. Sam F, as Cratchit protests that he was given the day off. That is about the time that Emily broke into laughter and told Cratchit that he would be getting a raise. And that Tiny Tim would be taken care of by the best doctors in London. With that the play is over.

To finish off our class. It was time to work on some music. We sang through We Wish you a Merry Christmas. And we thought it would be special (from Kendra's suggestion) to have the kids come up with some choreography, together we created a very special rendition of We Wish you a Merry Christmas. We next moved onto Carol of the Bells our most challenging piece. We ran through it a few times in our groups. We then tried it without the words. This proved difficult but we are just about ready to perform it. Lastly we went over our songs one more time and then reformed our circle. Our check out question was, “What is the hardest part of the play for you personally so far?” A lot of us knew that the music would be challenging. Memorizing the lyrics always takes time. But we're getting there. Some found the different characters challenging, it was good to get a sense of what we still need to work on. There is still plenty to do but we are in good shape with one more rehearsal and the dress rehearsal. We should be ready for Victory Gardens and our production of a Christmas Carol.

Ever wished you could visit one of our rehearsals and meet the team that makes A.B.L.E. possible? Our blog lets you do just that! We take you behind the scenes for all of our rehearsals, profile our facilitators and actors, and give details on special events.

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